Ginivex-class fanblade starfighter

Manufactured by the Geonosian-run Huppla Pasa Tisc Shipwrights Collective and constructed on the Outer Rim planet Geonosis, the Ginivex-class fanblade starfighter—alternatively known as the Ginivex-class fighter, the Ginivex series, Geonosian fanblade starfighter or fanblade fighter—was a Confederacy of Independent Systems starfighter that was 13.05 meters (42 feet, 11 inches) long, 2.25 meters wide, 14.40 meters high with sail deployed, and could reach 1,250 kilometers per hour (777 miles per hour). It was equipped with life support systems, air scoop thrusters, a class 1 hyperdrive, and a deflector shield generator.

Based on Sith Lord and Confederate Head of State Count Dooku's Punworcca 116-class interstellar sloop, and thus easily recognizable, the fanblade fighter's fuselage was gray in color with the cockpit situated at the front and encased in a glass dome, which was either left clear or colored red, that provided the pilot a wide field of vision. The hull of the fighter was small, as it was designed for a single occupant. The glass of the cockpit was hinged to allow the pilot to exit or enter the craft. Within the cockpit was a single seat for the pilot, as well as a number of screens used to display information on enemy starships. The fighter was flown with the use of a yoke, in the center of which was a targeting computer. The yoke could also display holographic transmissions, which were colored red.

The ship was equipped with a large, vertically aligned solar sail, which appeared as a translucent red semicircle and connected to a retractable boom, which could be folded inward for when the craft was in flight or landing. The fanblade fighter was also equipped with a backup sail, which could be deployed in place of the primary one. Engineers from Huppla Pasa Tisc Shipwrights Collective created an updated sail for Ventress' fighter after Dooku requested a solar sail for his personal vessel. Similar to deflector shield projection technology, the solar sail on the Ginivex-class formed a fan of energy that captured radiation from the surrounding area and redirected it to the starfighter's shield systems, weapons, and engines.

Despite the sail having no impact on the starfighter's performance and its ability to be unaffected by most weapons, an ion weapon could force the solar sail to recharge and then redeploy. As a safety measure, the sail had to be deactivated in atmospheric flight and before a hyperspace jump, since the structures that held the sail were not rugged enough. Differentiating it from other starfighters, and most starships, was the crimson solar sail fan that meant that the fighter could be easily spotted. Although it was obtrusive, the effect of the ebullient blade on opponents outweighed the starfighter's lack of stealth. At each tip of the solar sail was a laser cannon, which would rotate to face forward when the sail was retracted. The cannons could aim independently and in combination to cover a full range of 360 degrees. Their firepower was capable of piercing the hull of a Venator-class Star Destroyer.

A rare and expensive ship, the starfighter combat-capable Ginivex-class fanblade fighter was incredibly fast, thanks to its solar sail. When deployed, the sail would better spread the ship's deflector shield pattern, thereby strengthening its shielding, although the resulting energy output made the starfighter more detectable by other vessels' sensors. When flown by a Force-user, the fighter could perform turns and flips, which showcased the joint capability of the craft and its pilot.

Only six Ginivex-class fanblade starfighters were constructed for Asajj Ventress, a Force-sensitive Dathomirian loyal to the Sith who was apprenticed to Count Dooku. A commander in the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Ventress brought one of her fanblade fighters with her to the planet Cato Neimoidia during the Clone Wars in 22 BBY, while acting as a Separatist emissary in the investigation of the bombing of the Cadesura district of the city of Zarra.

Ventress framed the Galactic Republic's emissary, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, for the bombing, and after he was rescued from the Neimoidian authorities by his allies Anakin Skywalker, Mill Alibeth, and R2-D2, she used the craft to cut off their attempt to escape Cato Neimoidia. Ventress positioned the fighter hovering above a great drop outside an outlet to one of Zarra's sewer tunnels, which Skywalker, Alibeth, and R2-D2 were moving through. After Skywalker sensed the starfighter, which he noted seemed familiar—despite being initially confused by its design—Ventress used one of its blaster cannons to collapse the duracrete tunnel exit. The Sith then confronted Skywalker in the darkened tunnel, but after the Jedi bested Ventress in a duel, she grabbed Alibeth and jumped through an opening Skywalker had made in the rubble at the tunnel exit.

Landing on her craft with her captive caused the hovering vessel to dip slightly with the impact, sinking into the fog beneath it for a few moments before stabilizing. This was enough to distract Ventress, and Skywalker used the distraction to pull Alibeth from the Sith's grasp using the Force. Before he could pull her back safely to ground, Ventress stood atop the fanblade's cockpit while pulling back on Alibeth with the Force, leaving the girl hovering in midair over a great drop between the ship and the sewer. Kenobi, who had arrived above the sewer, threw his lightsaber down at the vital parts of the starfighter's hull, piercing it and causing a puff of smoke, followed by a short burst of flame, to emerge from the craft. As key systems failed, the fanblade starfighter gradually began to descend, forcing Ventress to release Alibeth and let Skywalker pull her to safety. The Sith then scrambled inside the cockpit as the vessel gained more downward momentum, allowing the Jedi to escape and flee from Cato Neimoidia.

After she successfully captured Outpost 716, Ventress was dispatched by Dooku to find a Jedi artifact, which he promised they could use to overthrow his own Sith Master, Darth Sidious. Pointed to the ruins of a Jedi Temple on the Moon of Staggec in the Outer Rim, Ventress arrived aboard one of her Ginivex-class fanblade starfighters and landed in a town outside of the temple. However, she found nothing within but traces of the object's presence in the Force. Returning to her fighter, she was ambushed by waiting Republic clone troopers, who had been informed of her location by Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, secretly Sidious himself. Ventress quickly cut the clones down with her twin lightsabers.

Ventress departed the moon aboard her Ginivex after sensing the artifact was on the planet Naboo in the Mid Rim Territories, where she journeyed aboard her Ginivex. She traveled to the Naboo capital of Theed, landing her starfighter slightly outside the city before venturing in. Within, she found Kenobi and Skywalker were present and attempted to grab a Wookiee doll from a Gungan child: Ventress sensed the artifact was within the doll, where it had been hidden by the Wookiee Senator Yarua. After escaping Skywalker and Kenobi, Ventress decided against stealing the doll from the child upon realizing Dooku did not truly value her. Ventress thus departed Naboo aboard her starfighter and used it to return to Dooku's solar sailer, where she claimed she had failed to find the artifact, much to Dooku's anger.

In 20 BBY, Ventress used a fanblade starfighter to board the Halcyon, an MPO-1400 Purgill-class star cruiser operated by the Hutts, while trying to extract the treacherous Republic Senator Zast Tri'vak. The cruiser's proximity alarm sounded when she entered its hangar, but it was dismissed as a glitch; however, Skywalker, who was on board with Senator Padmé Amidala to keep an eye on Tri'vak, sensed her arrival. The pair ended up dueling once again, but Tri'vak ultimately offered to betray both the Republic and the Separatists to the Hutts, causing Ventress to kill him.

Having remotely activated the fanblade starfighter to open its cockpit hatch and leave the Halcyons hangar, Ventress then used her lightsabers to shatter one of the Halcyons viewports and leap into the vacuum of space, where her starfighter was waiting for her. As Skywalker sealed the breach, Ventress escaped in her fighter.

In the same year, Ventress flew one of her fanblade fighters, the Banshee, against the Republic during the Battle of Sullust. With the aid of two groups of droid tri-fighters from her fleet, Ventress took aim at Skywalker's flagship, the Resolute, dealing substantial damage to the Star Destroyer's bridge and resulting in the cruiser's destruction.

Ventress and her tri-fighters then targeted Kenobi and Skywalker directly, both of whom were piloting their Delta-7B Aethersprite-class light interceptors. After the Dathomirian damaged Kenobi's craft with her fanblade fighter's lower laser cannon, the two Jedi split up, leaving Skywalker to contend with the droid starfighters while Ventress gave chase to Kenobi. As the Jedi Master approached the Separatist flagship, Ventress scored a second shot on Kenobi's ship, forcing him to head for the command ship's main hangar in order to land. Ventress stayed on Kenobi's tail, but she was intercepted by Skywalker, who damaged the hull of the Banshee and forced her to crash in the hangar.

With her ship aslant in the hangar with a disabled solar sail, Ventress communicated with Dooku via hologram in the fighter's cockpit, requesting the Count's assistance. However, Dooku—who had been instructed by Darth Sidious to kill Ventress, fearing that the Dathomirian had been growing too powerful in the Force—informed her that she had failed him and was no longer his apprentice. Embittered, Ventress emerged from the cockpit and briefly dueled Kenobi and Skywalker as Dooku ordered the remaining Separatist forces to destroy the flagship. After a Hyena-class Droid Bomber crashed into the hangar and exploded, Kenobi, Skywalker, and Ventress each returned to their own craft and narrowly escaped before the command ship's destruction.

Following the battle, Ventress was found adrift and unconscious aboard her fanblade fighter—sustained by its life-support systems—by a crew of scavengers, who brought the ship aboard their salvage freighter, the Raider. Her fighter's resilience enabled Ventress' survival. After placing the fighter in the freighter's hold, the crew removed the cockpit dome and revitalized Ventress, who used the Force to strangle them soon after. With her fanblade fighter still aboard, Ventress took control of the Raider and piloted it to her homeworld of Dathomir.

The Ginivex-class fanblade starfighter first appeared in the current Star Wars canon in "Nightsisters," the twelfth episode of the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars third season, which premiered on January 7, 2011. The starfighter was originally made for the Star Wars Legends animated television micro-series Star Wars: Clone Wars, where it first appeared in "Chapter 7" of the show, which first aired on November 17, 2003. Mike Chen—the author of the 2022 novel Brotherhood, in which Ventress and one of her Ginivex-class starfighters appear—wrote his interactions between Anakin Skywalker and Ventress as if the Clone Wars micro-series were still canon, simply assuming that Skywalker never saw Ventress's face during their first meeting. To hint that they have encountered each other before, Skywalker is noted to recognize her fanblade starfighter.

As the design for Asajj Ventress herself originated from unused concept art made for the 2002 prequel trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, that depicted a warrior reminiscent of Japan's samurai, Star Wars: Clone Wars Art Director Paul Rudish looked to that nation for inspiration on Ventress's starfighter. Rudish based the ship's distinctive shape on the sensu, a type of Japanese folding fan.

One of Ventress's Ginivex-class fanblade starfighters would later be included on a Ventress-themed variant cover for the thirty-fifth issue of the 2020 comic series Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, which was released on August 23, 2023. The cover was drawn by Giuseppe Camuncoli and depicts a fanblade flying nearby the B'omarr Order Monastery of the Wild Space planet Teth, which was used by Ventress early in the Clone Wars in a Separatist plot to frame the Jedi Order in the kidnapping of Rotta the Huttlet.

In Legends, the ship was identified as the Ginivex-class starfighter, as well as the Geonosian fanblade starfighter, in the now-defunct StarWars.com Databank. In the accompanying StarWars.com Episode Guide for "Nightsisters," the craft was canonically referred to as the Geonosian fanblade starfighter, and the 2017 canon reference book Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia provided the name Ginivex-class fanblade starfighter.

A deleted scene for "Nightsisters" has Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker's Jedi apprentice, disable Ventress's fanblade fighter during the Battle of Sullust; however, Tano is absent from the final episode, and Skywalker sends Ventress crashing instead. While the fighter's cockpit is completely clear in "Nightsisters," the rendering of the fanblade fighter seen in Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia shows the ship's cockpit window as tinted red, and the third issue of the comic book miniseries Star Wars: Halcyon Legacy—which was released on May 11, 2022, written by Ethan Sacks, and illustrated by Will Sliney—depicted the ship with a red cockpit. The 2018 reference book Star Wars Encyclopedia of Starfighters and Other Vehicles, written by Landry Q. Walker, gives the fanblade fighter's length as 13.1 meters, while the nineteenth issue of the Star Wars: Build Your Own X-Wing magazine, published later that year, and the Star Wars Encyclopedia booklet "Republic and Separatist Ships (2)," published on January 28, 2022, lists the fighter's length as 13.05 meters. As the latter sources were published more recently, this article defers to their measurements.

• Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia
• Star Wars Encyclopedia of Starfighters and Other Vehicles
• Star Wars: Build Your Own X-Wing 19
• Rise of the Separatists
• Star Wars Villainous: Power of the Dark Side